State Rep Tong: Will Fight Malloy's Proposed Cuts to Darien Education

DARIEN, CT- State Rep. William Tong (D-Stamford, Darien) said he plans to fight against a proposal to eliminate state funds for his district's education

"I want to be crystal clear that I do not support any proposal for the elimination of educational funding for Darien and Stamford, and I will fight hard against any proposal that seeks to eliminate these funds," he said.

Malloy recommended in his Feburary budget that Darien get $1.37 million in education cost sharing grants. His newly released budget proposal brings that down to zero.

Stamford's amount would be increased from Malloy's original proposed of $10.88 million to $11.1 million, a $224,000 difference. Only Danbury received a larger increase in ECS grants from $30.7 million to $31.69 million.

Tong said one of the things that makes Connecticut an attractive place to live is the quality of its educational system.

"To eliminate funding in this critical area at a time when we are doing our best to improve the quality of living and make Connecticut attractive to business would be a disastrous mistake," he said.

He urged to examine other areas of the budget to achieve savings and close the estimated $900 million deficit.